


baby, you could devastate me

by Suicix



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Mental Instability, Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 00:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4808777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suicix/pseuds/Suicix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wade doesn't know which was more unexpected: Alicia's post-match outburst or her approaching him afterwards.</p><p>Set post-RAW 12th May 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby, you could devastate me

**Author's Note:**

> if you don't remember/it wasn't obvious from the summary/didn't see this episode, 12th may 2014 was that raw last year when alicia had a match against paige and went wild when she lost. y'know, the time we thought wwe might finally be letting her do something but then soon enough we knew that they weren't because lbr it's wwe.

It’s just as strange and unexpected as her outburst was earlier when Alicia catapults from seemingly out of nowhere at Wade in the middle of the parking lot in the dark. She’s laughing, and he has no idea why, but he catches her shoulders to steady her because she’s kind of unbalanced right now.

Her eyes flash up to his, wicked and sparkling, and–

“Hi.”

Nothing else, no reasons given.

“Are you all right?” It’s all he can think to say to her right now, considering that she definitely hadn’t been all right earlier. He doesn’t know what was going through her mind, what exactly she thought she was doing, but what he does know is that it can’t go ignored.

“I’m fine,” she says, as if the very idea of her _not_ being fine is unfathomable, and she laughs again: loud, almost musical. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Wade clears his throat pointedly, as if it should be obvious. It _should_ be obvious, but what’s also obvious is that Alicia’s going to act as if it was nothing serious.

“Just considering what happened after your match tonight, I thought... that something would be wrong? You were... you were _angry_. And half the Internet seemed to think you were gonna leave the company.” At that, she opens her mouth to retort, perhaps, but Wade carries on before she can. “I know you’re not, though; I saw the interview.” He pauses. “Why are you here, anyway?”

The answer is more casual than he expected, but when she says it, he doesn’t know why he actually expected something else.

“Aksana freaked and left without me. So I need a ride to the hotel. Figured you hadn’t left yet.”

“Well. You’ve caught me. Only just, though.” He gestures to the open boot of the car, bags loaded inside. “Was almost about to leave.”

“Lucky me, then,” she says, and she moves in even closer to him, almost so she’s pressed up against his chest, but he draws back, just about backing into the car, keeping a firm hold on her arms.

“Hey,” he says, quiet. He isn’t entirely sure what she wants from him. If it’s just what she said or something more than that.

After all, they’re something, aren’t they? However one might define _something_ , anyway. On and off and on and off again, but nothing that lasted, really. Mostly sex, it seemed like, along with some brief interludes of... Wade doesn’t even know. A different kind of intimacy altogether.

The last few months have been an _off_ period. Wade had considered starting it up another time if Alicia wanted to as well, but then he started having matches again and _then_ he was distracted by the promise of a championship. There was just no time to think about it. Especially when there _is_ a title belt sitting there in the still open trunk of his car. That’s got to be his top priority, and it is.

Right now though, Alicia’s more important. Yeah, she can look after herself, and Wade knows that, but something’s different tonight. That much was clear from her post-match meltdown, is clear from _now_ , even. He doesn’t know what it is, but he’s willing to give a hand, a shoulder, an ear. He brings her in against him, arms wrapping around her, hand steady on her back. That’s what she seems to want, isn’t it? What with running at him like that and constantly trying to get closer? He’ll pull away in a second if she tells him no, but she doesn’t. She just burrows into his chest, breathing heavy and deep. It sounds like she’s trying her best not to cry.

She’s important to him. She really is. He doesn’t want her spiralling off into God knows what with no-one there to help pull her back from it. He doesn’t think he’s necessarily the best person to be that for her, but he doesn’t want her to feel alone. He thinks he’d rather make a wreck of himself and his career than have her feeling like she has no-one. She has him, if she wants to.

“Let’s get into the car, yeah?” he says once she’s stopped shaking so much.

Alicia takes a deep breath and nods, handing Wade her bags to put in the trunk before moving to climb into the passenger side of the car. She doesn’t put her seatbelt on immediately, just sits there, quiet.

Wade supposes he should ask about it. He’s not starting the car with her like this.

“Do you want to go to the hotel straight away, or is there anything you wanted to talk about first?”

She turns to him, frowning. “Like... like what?”

“I don’t know,” Wade says. “Anything. Anything you like. Or nothing, if you want. I’m not going to make you.”

He doesn’t get any words in response yet, just Alicia pressing her lips together, but from her expression Wade can tell that she’s considering saying something.

“I,” she begins, and even on only one syllable her voice is cracking a little. “I feel stuck. And I don’t know what I’m supposed to do to get out of it. So I just... let that happen. What – what happened tonight. I can’t think of anything else I could have done.”

Wade nods in acknowledgment. He on one hand wants to tell her she should see about getting some new entrance music (she needs it), but he’s probably had enough themes over the last few years alone that that’s it, no new music for anyone. Plus, what good did it do him most of the time? It always gave him a new mindset, made him feel like he was on the verge of some great change in his career, but nothing ended up changing at all. He still felt lost, still wasn’t given the time of day he knows he deserved. It’s much less likely that she ever will.

“Do what feels right for you,” he tells her, because really that’s the best and only advice he has. “Whether it be making a scene like that after a match or... or whatever. I don’t know.”

“I just. When someone just appears and wins the title in her first match, I feel like shit, y’know? It’s been almost four years since I’ve had that belt. I don’t wanna like, become a total afterthought. I wanna prove myself. I just have no idea how I’m meant to do that. There’s no way to do that but to win the title. That’s all we have. Even then, it’s not exactly like the bosses take it seriously. Or most of the fans, even. I know they don’t. But it’s something, and I guess I’ve gotta aim for it.”

“Do you really want to, though?” Wade asks, but he changes the question before she can answer, because who wouldn’t want a championship? “Well – do you think you’re in the right place to?

“If this is what gets me noticed, then it’s what I have to go with.” She isn’t looking at him when she says it. “And it got me plenty noticed tonight.”

“OK,” Wade says. He isn’t sure what else he could say to respond. He doesn’t necessarily agree that it’s the best path, because her mental wellbeing should be more important than winning titles, but he understands it, in a way. It reminds him of when he started here, of the early days, of leading Nexus. Sometimes back then there were things he felt he had to do, things that turned him colder and darker, things he thought he’d never end up regretting.

Too bad most of that blew up in his face. He only hopes that won’t happen to Alicia. Even more so, he hopes she won’t explode first.

She seems in a better mood now, though, as they zip through the city in the dark: calm, peaceful, smiling as she looks out into the moonlight outside the car, as she takes glances over at Wade every now and again. He doesn’t know how long it will last, but he hopes the whole journey.

They arrive at the hotel without any trouble. Wade’s thankful; he didn’t particularly want to have to pull over to the side of the road to try and calm her down because she’d started crying or raging or... he doesn’t know. He really doesn’t. None of this has happened before, or at least not where he could see. How long has she been keeping this locked away for? He hates to think that she must have felt like she couldn’t tell him. That she might not have told anyone anything if she hadn’t ended up detonating live on air like she did tonight. That she’s probably still unwilling to talk much about it.

The Intercontinental Championship sits atop everything else in the trunk. Wade’s taken to actually carrying the belt rather than just keeping it in a bag. He wants it to mean something again, and he wants to be the one to make that happen. They hardly gave him half a chance the first three times. Maybe this will bring something more.

Wade takes it out first – it’s in the way of his case, after all – and he’s about to reach back in for a bag when Alicia breaks the silence.

“Congratulations, by the way.” He turns his head to look at her, cocking an eyebrow in confusion. “On the title,” she clarifies, nodding up at it.

“Right. Thanks.”

“I just didn’t get the chance to tell you before, y’know? Thought I should.”

“Well, it’s only been a week. Hopefully there’ll be plenty of time for congratulations yet.”

“I think there will be,” Alicia says, and she reaches out to stroke at the blue and black and gold of the belt over his arms before her hand closes around the white leather and she pulls it towards herself. “Can I?”

Wade shrugs and passes it over. “Sure.”

He expects her to just examine it and then hand it back and pick up her bags, but she lifts the title so it’s over her shoulder, the way a champion might carry it, and directs a pointed nod to the open trunk.

“Take my bags,” she says, and – _OK_. Wade does, amused.

Alicia doesn’t bother waiting, then: just gives him a smile and sashays her way across the car park to the hotel entrance. Once the car’s been locked, Wade follows, bags in hand. It’s all there is for him to do.

She’s already by the elevator when he reaches her. He’s silent as they wait for it to arrive, but she’s humming not quite quietly enough to be under her breath, tapping her fingers on the metal of the championship over her shoulder. There’s no tune to it, no rhythm, but it’s calming, somewhat.

When Wade steps inside the elevator after Alicia, she nods towards the numbered buttons on the wall. There’s something sharp in her expression, but Wade can’t quite place it.

“I don’t know what floor you’re on,” he tells her, because he doesn’t.

She shrugs up at him.

“And I don’t think that’s where I’m gonna be sleeping tonight,” she says, and he can tell she’s trying to keep her voice even and cool though she’s not quite managing it.

“Really?” Wade wonders, unable to stop the slight smirk now, and the look Alicia sends back up to him tells him enough.

He presses a finger to his floor number on the wall, and then to the _close doors_ button. Alicia doesn’t even wait for the door to slide shut before she’s clutching at his jacket, pushing him back to the wall, pulling him down towards her so she can kiss him. Wade drops the bags and gets one hand in Alicia’s hair, the other on her shoulder to stop his title belt from falling. She’s so easy to fall into.

Though it’s not like falling, really, but flying. Hurtling upwards faster than he could ever imagine, and not just because they’re being shot up several storeys in a lift. He’s drowning in her but at the same time he’s alive, so alive, and he’s relearning everything about her that he cast to the back of his mind over the last few months, everything he never really could forget if even if he tried to.

He doesn’t particularly want to surface when the doors open again: he’s in too deep, the hand in her hair tighter now, and he feels like he never even needs to breathe again. He has to be the one to pull back though, because he doesn’t think she’s going to. The separation is slow; they’re still just breathing each other in as the elevator beeps at them to get out.

Wade quickly fishes his key card out of a pocket and holds it out to her; he won’t be able to open the door with the bags and he wants to get into the room as soon as he can, wants to get to have _her_ as soon as he can. Alicia’s eyes glitter up at him, down at the key card that’s now in her hand, and then back up to him. She smirks – devious, dazzling – and then it’s out of the elevator and down the hall to his room.

It’s then, as Wade’s watching her move through the corridor, not quite beside him and not quite in front of him, that he realises.

It’s – _fuck_ , it’s kind of frightening, because he doesn’t think he’s ever needed it before, needed it to be something solid, but now he just might. Of course it depends on what she wants from him too, if she even wants anything beyond tonight and their usual pattern in the first place. It might turn out to be too much for her like this – it might have _always_ been too much for her, and that’s why whatever they had never became anything more than what it was – but for now Wade lets himself be pulled by the wrist into the room, lets his foot kick the door shut behind him, lets himself be pressed up against it, lets himself sink beneath the surface once more.


End file.
